In the lobby of the local Elko, Nev., office of Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s second-biggest gold miner by production, a series of posters celebrate almost a century of mining, exploration—and fighting takeovers.

But after another attempt to take over the company failed in April, many investors have lost patience. They are urging the miner to either rekindle this year’s aborted deal with No. 1 Barrick Gold Corp., or break itself up.

We believe the impasse on copper concentrate exports will not be solved until well after the Indonesian presidential elections on 9th July. Newmont stopped processing at the Batu Hijau mine in early June as the company’s storage facilities reached full capacity. Newmont also recently filed for arbitration under the terms of its Contract of Work (COW) after failing to reach a negotiated settlement. While the merger talks with Barrick broke-down, we believe Newmont could come back to table if it loses confidence in being able to access Batu Hijau’s cash flow.
Newmont had delivered impressive operating performance in Q1 with most of the metrics tracking ahead of guidance. We could see upward revisions to guidance for regions excluding Indonesia if Q2 is strong, but this would be offset by the worse outlook for Batu Hijau. Newmont also has all the necessary permits for the 400-500koz Merian project and could give an update on the construction decision with the Q2 results.

Shares of Newmont Mining have gained 2.2% to $25.35 at 10:47 a.m. today, while Barrick Gold has risen 1.1% to $18.90. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) has advanced 1.5% to $26.85.

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Earnings reports, corporate strategies and analyst insights are all part of what moves stocks, and they’re all covered by the Stocks to Watch blog. We also look at macro issues, investor sentiments and hidden trends that are affecting the market. Stocks to Watch gives you the full picture of the U.S. stock markets, all day long.

The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.